


first place

by buttface



Category: Free!
Genre: Awkward Kissing, First Kiss, M/M, not nearly as romantic as you'd expect from a fic entirely about kissing, probably aro haru, room for implied makorin or harurin if you want
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-30
Updated: 2015-10-30
Packaged: 2018-04-28 22:20:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5107721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buttface/pseuds/buttface
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Makoto has read stories where friends ask you to kiss them for practice as an excuse to confess their love to you. He's pretty sure when Haru says it he actually means it as practice, though. Almost definitely.</p>
            </blockquote>





	first place

**Author's Note:**

  * For [themorninglark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/themorninglark/gifts).



> Lark! It's only because of your constant support and encouragement that I ever came this far. I should have written you something perfect and well-crafted, but instead I have a dumb short comedy fic about smooches. It's not too sappy, I promise. You're a constant inspiration with how you challenge yourself with every piece you write; thank you for always supporting me to do the same. Here's to old-ladyhood, destined bff.

Makoto had been looking forward to a nice, quiet Sunday evening doing homework in Haru’s living room. He knew Haru had been over at Samezuka training for most of the afternoon and he was usually content but quiet afterwards, having used up the day’s allotment of conversational energy on bantering with Rin. They always invite Makoto along as well, and he knows they mean it, but he likes to give the two of them some time to themselves. Otherwise it starts to feel like he’s saying he doesn’t trust them to race alone without breaking eachother’s hearts again.  
  
Instead, he’s barely put the kettle on when Haru arrives home, slips off his shoes, and announces to Makoto that they have to kiss.  
  
“Kiss?”  
  
“For practice.”  
  
“Practice?” Makoto repeats slowly, starting to wonder if the stress of senior year has finally done something to his mind.  
  
“So I can beat Rin,” Haru tells him, staring at Makoto like he’s the one not making sense here.  
  
“Kissing makes you swim faster?” Makoto supposes he can’t disprove it. He’s never been kissed, and while he’s fast enough, he could certainly be faster.  
  
“No.” Haru rolls his eyes, but after a moment subjected to Makoto’s best earnestly confused puppy dog face, he seems resigned to explaining. “Rin said today that he’s a great kisser.”  
  
“Okay?” Makoto wonders who Rin’s kissed. Despite everything they’ve been through since Rin came back from Australia, Makoto still thinks of him as a bright-eyed whirlwind of an elementary school kid. He thinks that of all of them sometimes.  
  
“And I haven’t kissed anybody.”  
  
“Okay…” This is a bit of a relief; at least he hasn’t missed that much of what’s been going on in Haru’s life lately. It’s not exactly any of his business, but if Haru, of all people, had burst into the world of dating without Makoto noticing, he’d really need to retire as best friend.  
  
“So I need to practice,” Haru concludes.  
  
“So you can kiss Rin?”  
  
Haru blinks. “Why would I be kissing Rin?”  
  
Makoto blinks back. “Why would you be kissing me?”  
  
“To practice!”  
  
And that seems to be all the explanation that Haru has to offer on the subject.  
  
Makoto takes a deep breath and mentally adds another item to his internal folder of “things Haru feels strongly about that he doesn’t understand but which are probably mostly harmless and he may as well be supportive about.” This is not … well no, this definitely is the silliest the weird competitiveness Rin brings out in Haru has gotten. But it’s not an entirely new phenomenon. If it matters to Haru that much, he might as well help.  
  
It’s not as if Makoto has never thought about kissing Haru. He’d often hoped thinking about it would either gross him out or excite him and then he’d be able to cleanly categorize once and for all what Haru means to him. (He means the world, of course. But Makoto is vaguely aware that he should be able to answer if somebody asks him “but what does _that_ mean?”) But it’s never seemed like Haru had any particular interest in kissing anybody, and Makoto couldn’t picture wanting to kiss Haru if he couldn’t picture Haru wanting to kiss him. More than anything else, Makoto wants Haru to be able to be Haru.  
  
Makoto has read stories that go like this, but he somehow doesn’t think this is going to end in declarations of eternal love. (Of course, they both already know that they will always love eachother. But not like that, probably. Not in the way that you talk about and kiss and stuff for. Probably. He’s not sure how he’s supposed to know what that way feels like.)  
  
“I’ll do my best to help,” he says, because that’s what Haru is to him, above everything else.  
  
“Okay. Go sit down and I’ll kiss you.”  
  
Makoto takes up his usual spot on the couch, perching closer to the edge than usual so his lips will be easy to reach without Haru having to lean over too far. Haru stands in front of him watching very seriously. It’s kind of uncomfortable, so Makoto closes his eyes.  
  
“Why did you do that?” Haru asks immediately.  
  
“That’s what you’re supposed to do, isn’t it? People always close their eyes on TV.”  
  
“Oh,” Haru says. Makoto wonders if he’s ever really paid attention to a kiss before. “Okay. I’ll do that too.”  
  
The next thing Makoto feels is Haru’s nose bumping hard against his own.  
  
“I think maybe one of us should keep their eyes open,” Makoto suggests, trying to hide his wince of pain.  
  
“Oh.”  
  
Haru’s lips are very dry and a little bit chapped from regular exposure to chlorine. Makoto supposes his aren’t much better; if he’d known this was going to happen to him, ever, he’d at least have borrowed some lip balm first. He doesn’t feel it for very long, anyway; Haru leans in just enough to press his small mouth to Makoto’s lightly, holds it there for a moment, then pulls back.  
  
“Was that right?” Haru asks him, as if he knows.  
  
“Hmmm.” Makoto’s not sure it’s his place to criticize, but they’re trying to work this out together, right? Maybe between them they can overcome their lack of experience. “I think maybe you’re supposed to do a little more with your mouth than that?”  
  
“Okay.”  
  
Haru definitely does more with his mouth this time. He remembers to keep his lips tucked over his teeth, so it’s not technically biting, but Makoto can feel the working of Haru’s jaws against his lips as he attacks. It’s hard not to think of it as an attack, anyway. Makoto tries to reciprocate by opening his own mouth a little, mostly in self-defense, but it takes most of his focus not to just try to run away.  
  
“I tried harder that time,” Haru tells him. “Did that help?”  
  
“Um.” Makoto rubs his lips. “Ow.”  
  
“Oh.” Haru looks a little embarrassed about that, as if the rest of this whole thing hasn’t been embarrassing. “Sorry.”  
  
“It’s okay, it’s okay!” Makoto tries to stall for recovery time. “But I think … maybe that was a little too much.”  
  
“Got it.”  
  
“I think maybe if we just take it slow it’ll start to make sense?” After all, at this point he’s invested in making a decent kisser out of Haru, if only so that this whole interlude wasn’t entirely pointless. If it matters to Haru, he’ll do it.  
  
“Hmmm.”  
  
Makoto keeps his eyes open this time, at least at first. That way he can tilt his own head a little to mirror Haru’s and make sure their lips fit together, rather than Haru having to attack a stationary target. He parts his lips just a little bit, on a hunch that it’ll be more comfortable. Haru follows suit after a moment. It’s not so much that anybody is swallowing anybody else’s tongue, but it feels like their mouths are fitting a little more closely together than before.  
  
It’s nice. It’s very nice. It doesn’t really answer any of Makoto’s questions, but it feels very soft and warm. It’s comfortable. He wouldn’t mind doing it again.  
  
Not for the first time, Makoto wishes he understood what Haru was feeling. He secretly glows with pride whenever someone calls them telepathic, but the truth is that while he usually can tell what Haru is going to do or wants him to do, he doesn’t usually know what Haru feels about it. He suspects Haru doesn’t always know either, and that he’s usually mostly okay with that, but that’s not much consolation to Makoto. At least one of them should know.  
  
Either way, after a moment Makoto can feel Haru not pressing up to his lips quite so hard, so Makoto pulls back a little as well. It feels a little lonely when the kiss ends with a little popping sound, but it’s probably the right time to end it. They’ve accomplished their goal, after all.  
  
“Was that okay?” Haru asks.  
  
“Yes,” Makoto tells him truthfully, with a smile that means everything. It’s the same smile he always gives Haru, every day since before he can remember. He doesn’t know what Haru sees in it; he doesn’t know what he’d see in it himself if he could look from the outside. “Was it okay for you?”  
  
“Mm,” Haru says noncommittally, but he looks off to the side, so it was probably okay. Not unpleasant enough to be worth complaining about, at least.  
  
“I’m glad,” Makoto says with a little chuckle. “So, should I go make the tea and we can work on the science homework?”  
  
“Not yet,” Haru informs him. “Now you need to kiss Rin and then tell him that I’m better than he is.”  
  
“Kiss Rin?” Makoto squeaks in a very undignified fashion.

"Obviously. Otherwise he won't know that I won."

“Have you asked him about this?” Makoto had been so proud of how flustered he'd managed to not be about this, but kissing _Rin_? That is another matter entirely.  
  
“Of course not,” Haru says as if Makoto’s just become very stupid again. “If I had asked him, he’d know my plan.”  
  
“Haru! I can’t just-”  
  
“Here, you can ask him,” Haru says impassively, reaching out to press Makoto’s phone against his suddenly very pink ear. He hears all of one ring before it’s cut off by Rin’s confused “Hello? Makoto?”  
  
If this is what kissing Haru is like, maybe it's not all bad that he's not sure it'll happen again.


End file.
